Respiratory tract deposition of polydisperse aerosols in humans.

Total and regional deposition of polydisperse aerosols in the human respiratory tract are studied theoretically. The size distribution of the aerosol is assumed to be lognormal. For a given mass median particle diameter, mass deposition fraction is found to vary with the geometric standard deviation of the aerosol. The departure of the deposition pattern in various regions of the respiratory system from that of a monodisperse aerosol is interpreted in terms of the average mobility effect and deposition limitation effect of the polydisperse aerosol together with the sequential filtering effect of the respiratory tract.